My Latest Cartoon For New Scientist

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Dear fiction writers there is no such thing as an "intersex species", please stop telling me that your alien species is intersex rep.

That's not what intersex means. If your reasoning for a character being intersex is "they're a [insert species that has different sex characteristics from humans]", just stop.

If "all of them are intersex" then they aren't intersex. They just have different sex traits/reproductive organization from humans. If thats how they typically look, thats just what being perisex (non-intersex) looks like for that species. Intersex refers to an individual with sex characteristics atypical for their species.

This also goes for third sexes. That's not atypical if it's a commonly observed cluster of traits recognized as "a sex", that means that'd just be another form of being perisex (for that species). Intersex essentially means 'other' or 'neither', the point of the word is that we don't fit into the boxes provided for most of the population, not that we're a rare and magical third box.

Additionally shapeshifters (usually) also come off as bad rep for the same reason. If your character is intersex because they're a shapeshifter, they're not intersex. You don't become intersex, you're born that way. I don't like when characters have their bodies altered later in life and are called intersex for those modifications. And the idea that a character is becoming intersex by transforming their body just reinforces the idea that there is a certain type of way an intersex body looks, and that intersex is something you can 'become' via bodily alterations. We can look like anything. Sometimes our variations are only visible through chromosome or hormone testing. And often we have our bodies changed against our will to make our intersexuality less obvious. If you can become intersex via body alterations, does that mean medical abuse removes our intersexuality?

Yes, you can have a non-human character be intersex‐ if that individual has variant sex characteristics by the standards of their species.

Yes, you can write a species with bigenitalia (both parts)- just don't call them intersex or hermaphrodites (that is a slur). Some better terms are cosexed, monoecious, gonosimulites, dualsex

Yes, you can write shapeshifters as intersex- as long as you understand what intersex means and apply the actual definition of the word to the context of your story.

Boomers can navigate screens like THIS no problem in order to slurp down the next utter bullshit right-wing-tinged AI slop but can't manage to understand that waving a card in front of the screen (not the card reader) without having pressed the giant "pay now" button on a streamlined self-checkout system will not, in fact, mean they have paid for their items. And then they will be rude to you about it

Honestly? Yeah, this is how Tarkovsky's movies feel

Never try to convey your idea to the audience – it is a thankless and senseless task. Show them life and they’ll find within themselves the means to assess and appreciate it.

— Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time: Reflections on the Cinema, page 152

Having a much older, much more experienced person tell you you're doing well in your shared hobby is better than crack, especially when the hobby tends to be 80% retired ppl. Like, hell yeah I'm gonna get a good grade in birdwatching and I'm not even 50. Child prodigy moment

prince randian, the living torso, lighting a cigarette with only his mouth; pictured in 'freaks,' (1932) dir. tod browning.

The Quill by Alphonse Mucha

“It’s targeted violence. The Schutzstaffel have been treated very unfairly for just doing their jobs. Their land was seized and turned into concentration camp museums. That’s why it’s so important that we get them all into the United States, where they can rest assured they won’t be discriminated against.” At press time, Trump was reportedly thanking senior advisor Elon Musk for bringing the plight of the Nazi people to the world’s attention.

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i have turned it into a letterboxd list: good films that are free on the internet archive!!!! Each film is linked in the notes on letterboxd. this will be continually updated so it's a good link to save if you want to keep up!